"Refried" beans and salsa

Canned beans have come a long way since I was a kid; they now have a much better flavor. I keep a few cans on hand in the pantry for meal emergencies, but for the most part I make my own beans.

Ask 10 people how they make their beans and you'll get 10 different answers. Here's what I do.

Put the cleaned, rinsed, and drained beans in a large pot; cover with water at least 1/2 inch past the beans. Cover the pot, put it over high heat on the stove and let it come to a boil. Then lower the heat and let the beans simmer, stirring every hour or so, till tender and done. I usually do a taste test about 3 hours into it and keep tasting every half hour or so till they're done. The more beans you make, the longer it takes. Add more water as needed to keep the level consistent (I learned that lesson the hard way...burned beans are not fun to clean off the pot!).

Refried beans usually means to fry up the cooked beans in a pan with a bit of oil on the bottom. It's time consuming and messy. Instead just use your blender or food processor and give the beans a whirl. You can do this right after the beans are cooked or let them cool to room temperature or even overnight in the fridge first. Whatever you have time for. Anyhow, add some of the bean liquid to loosen up the beans so they'll process to the desired thickness. If you let the beans cool overnight in the fridge you'll need even less of the bean juice. Season up with salt and voila!

You could cook up your beans in the crockpot, but I prefer stovetop beans. The water never really comes up to a boil in the slowcooker, and then the beans don't seem to "move around" as much as they do on the stove. They also seem to absorb more water in the slowcooker than they do on the stove, but they don't cook up as quickly. It's handy for days when you can't be at home to babysit the beans, though.

Beans freeze really well, whether they're boiled whole or whirled in the blender. You can also prolong mashed beans' fridge life if you cook them up in a pan every few days. It's an old trick my mom's aunt used to swear by. It works. Let them come up to a boil and stir them well. The beans are as fresh as they were when they were first cooked and supposedly any ill after-effects of beans are, uh, eliminated after this (having grown up eating beans all my life...I can't say for certain if it works or not).

I prefer a more soupy salsa over the pico de gallo styles. I never seem to have all the ingredients on hand to make this at home as much as I'd like to.

1 bunch cilantro, tough stems removed
1 bunch green onions, white and light green parts, roughly cut
1 peeled clove garlic
1 large can diced tomatoes, undrained
chile pepper...how much and what variety is entirely up to you. I've used the very mild small yellow chile peppers, serrano chiles, and jalapenos at some point or another. Depending on who I'm making the salsa for I sometimes take the seeds and membranes out. I generally use 1 whole chile pepper per batch
salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything in the blender and give a whirl till everything's comined and it's the consistency you'd like. You could probably use a food processor too, but my blender is much faster.

The only way I know how to tone down the heat factor is to make more salsa without the chile and then combine the 2. But it keeps in the fridge for a while.